The Generals hold single-season team marks in batting with 241 walks and pitching with 32 complete games — both in 1971.

The 1973 pitching staff racked up 428 strikeouts and posted a 0.73 earned run average, accomplishments which rank second and third, respectively. The 1968 team hurled 16 shutouts, which ranks tied for fifth.

Dan Gibson set a record for at-bats with 152 in 1971.

Joe McMahel (1995-98) had the most career at-bats with 459 while Matt James (1994-97) ranks fifth. McMahel and James (1994-97) are tied for 10th in career hits with 173 apiece.

D.J. Dewees stole 60 bases in 1992, the third-most in single-season state history.

Brad Turner (1993-96) enjoyed quite the Clarksville pitching career. He is second in starts (52), third in complete games (420), fourth in innings (356) and tied for fifth in shutouts (14).

Guy Finch (1975-78) is third in career shutouts (17), tied for fifth in career wins (43), tied for sixth in single-season strikeouts (199 in 1977) and eighth in career strikeouts (524).

Gary Melson (1968-71) is tied for seventh in career shutouts (13). The right-hander played at Middle Tennessee State University and was selected in the 15th round of the 1975 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the Cleveland Indians. He pitched in the minors through 1981, spending part or all of three seasons in Triple-A.

Jeff Lentz (1965-68) is tied for seventh in career complete games (34).

Turning to defense, Rob Stockdale (1977-80) ranks first in putouts for a career (952) and single season (360 in 1977).

Steve Hartley (1984-87) is sixth in career infield putouts and assists excluding a first baseman (391).

Kelly Allen (1995-98) is ninth in career putouts (712).

Shayne Stock, Wayne’s son, used to be head coach at Hanover (Ind.) College. Wayne Stock once counted Chris McIntyre (New Albany High School head coach) as an assistant and Eric Stotts (Borden High School head coach) as a player.

Jamie Knight, who has coached at various levels since he was 18, is heading into his sixth season as head coach at his alma mater. The 1983 Clarksville graduate played for Stock and is trying to restore an expectation of excellence if not in quite the same old-school way that his coach did.

After serving one season as junior varsity coach at Floyd Central, Knight took the reins at Clarksville for the 2014 season. The Generals had just 12 players in the entire program that first spring.

By the next year, participation had doubled and Knight re-established a JV team and the varsity earned the school’s first sectional title since 2003.

“Clarksville has been a strong baseball school,” says Knight. “When I got here it resembled nothing like that. I’ve tried to to bring that back — the respect for the game, tradition and doing things the right way.

“I’m a strong believer that if you do things the right way, act the right way and show respect for the game that will translate into wins and success

“The hardest part was to get the kids to believe they could reach that level again.”

Another sectional championship was claimed in 2018, beating Eastern (Pekin) in the Class 2A final at Clarksville’s Wayne Stock Field. The Generals’ season ended with a semifinal loss to North Posey at the Austin Regional.

Recent Clarksville graduates to move on to the college diamond include Ethan Cummings (Vincennes University), Seth Hamilton (Manchester University for baseball and football) and Nick Jones (Southeastern Illinois College in Harrisburg, Ill.).

Clarksville is in a sectional grouping with Crawford County, Eastern (Pekin), Henryville, Lanesville and Paoli. The IHSAA success factor has moved Providence to 3A while Lanesville came up from 1A.

Knight’s 2019 assistants are Joel DeMoss (fourth season) and Nathan Kane (first season). His first two years at Clarksville, Knight took two former Indiana University Southeast players — Zach Adams and Carter Sibley — as assistants on the recommendation of Grenadiers head coach Ben Reel.

“I like having young coaches coming right from playing in college,” says Knight. “They bring knew drills and they can throw lots of batting practice.”

Adams went on to coach at Rock Valley College in Rockford, Ill., while Sibley went to coach at Campbellsville (Ky.) University.

Former Generals base stealer Dewees is a regional director for the Clarksville/Louisville portion of the Rawlings Tigers travel organization.

Knight spent 25 years with Louisville Metro Police.

“This is kind of my second career,” says Knight of serving as head baseball coach and assistant to athletic director Levi Carmichael at Clarksville.

Knight signed out of high school to play tennis and baseball at Franklin College. When the men’s tennis season was moved from the fall to the spring, he stayed on the court instead of the diamond. He transferred to the University of Louisville and earned a degree in police administration.

Jamie and wife Debbie reside in Floyds Knobs and have been married almost 20 years. She is an occupational therapist.

“She’s fantastic,” says Jamie. “She allows me to coach.”

Jamie’s two sons are both former baseball players at Floyd Central.

Ryan Knight (28) played baseball and tennis for the Highlanders then signed at Franklin College. An injury kept him from playing. He is now a Sellersburg, Ind., police officer.

Patrick Knight (26) was a left-handed pitcher for two seasons at Ancilla College in Donaldson, Ind.

Jamie Knight, a 1983 Clarksville (Ind.) High School graduate, is the head baseball coach at his alma mater.

Being consistently competitive on the baseball field at a small school is no small feat.

Head coach Eric Stotts has found a way to make the Braves of Borden High School (enrollment just over 200) into a program to be reckoned with around southern Indiana.

Fielding just a varsity team with about 12 to 14 players, the IHSAA Class 1A Braves have faired well against a schedule that is full of larger schools, including 4A’s Jennings County, New Albany and Seymour and 3A’s Corydon Central, North Harrison, Salem and Silver Creek.

“Aside from conference, we have only one 1A opponent,” says Stotts. “It’s the nature of the beast where we’re located.

“We’ve been fortunate to have a modest amount of pitching depth for a 1A high school.”

One way Borden dealt with the new pitch count rule (1 to 35 pitches requires 0 days rest; 36 to 60 requires 1 day; 61 to 80 requires 2 days; 81 to 100 requires 3 days; and 101 to 120 requires 4 days) last spring was to sometimes lift pitchers at the front of the rotation early in games and go back to them later if needed.

“We have see-sawed back and forth (with Lanesville),” says Stotts, who has ledBorden baseball 2000-07 and 2015 to the present. “We gave them the toughest game in their state tournament run both years.”

Because of the IHSAA success factor, Lanesville will move up to 2A in 2018. That leaves Christian Academy of Indiana, New Washington, Shawe Memorial, South Central (Elizabeth) as potential sectional foes for Borden.

Borden will still meet up with Lanesville. They are both members of the Southern Athletic Conference (along with Crothersville, Henryville, New Washington and South Central).

If SAC schools meet twice during the season, the first one counts toward the conference standings. Crothersville (about a 50-minute trip) is the furthest SAC school from Borden.

With the help of full-time assistants Sam Beckort and Eric Nale and part-timers Kyle Kruer (Indiana University Southeast student) and Dawson Nale (University of Southern Indiana student), the Braves go into 2018 with a trio of seniors that have been starters since Stotts came back to the program in 2015 — catcher/shortstop/pitcher Lucas McNew (a USI commit), first baseman/utility player Cory Anderson and outfielder Noah Franklin.

Having seen him speak at clinics, Stotts has incorporated some infield drills taught by USI head coach Tracy Archuleta.

Stotts draws on the influence of a real diamond veteran. The 1993 Clarksville High School graduate played for the Generals and Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame Wayne Stock, who taught lessons of dedication and commitment.

“Coach Wayne threw every pitch of batting practice,” says Stotts. “He was a wonderful man and a wonderful mentor.

“I thought he was the coolest guy on the planet. I’m now a coach and social studies teacher. That’s exactly what he was. No one outside my family was more influential on me.”

Stotts recalls the words of the late Billy Graham: “A coach will impact more people in a season than the average person does in a lifetime.”

“I firmly believe that,” says Stotts, who is father to Jonathan (22) and Zane (15).

As for strategy, Stotts says Stock was not a fan of the bunt. It took Stotts some time to learn how effective “small ball” can be.

“Now that has become a main weapon in any high school coach’s arsenal,” says Stotts.

McIntyre was a student teacher at Clarksville when Stotts was still in school.

“Coach Mac is a great old-school kind of coach,” says Stotts. “His teams do things the right way.”

One of Ingram’s products at Eastern (Pekin) was Brad Pennington. Drafted in 1989, the 6-foot-5 left-hander went on to pitch five seasons in the majors with the Orioles, Cincinnati Reds, Boston Red Sox, California Angels and Tampa Bay Rays.

Like tennis, track and softball, Borden has its baseball facilities about a mile from campus.

The baseball field does not have lights. But fencing and other equipment was replaced after a low-grade tornado tore through last season.

Upgrades last year at Borden Youth League meant that junior high age players no longer had to share the high school diamond.

Eric Stotts gets a point across to his Borden High School baseball team. He has led the Braves in two different stints — 2000-2007 and 2015 to the present. (Greg Mengelt/News and Tribune Photo)

Borden High School baseball players listen intently to head coach Eric Stotts. The 1993 Clarksville High School graduate is in his second stint with the Braves. (Joel Ulrich/News and Tribune Photo)

Founded in 1853, New Albany is oldest public high school in Indiana and one of the oldest west of the Alleghenies.

There are many proud alums sending their children to the school where they attended.

It’s at this place that Chris McIntyre heads into his 24th season as head baseball coach in 2018.

“We have a lot of tradition,” says McIntyre, who has led the Bulldogs to a 487-206 mark with 10 sectional championships — the most-recent in 2016 — and five Hoosier Hills Conference titles and 12 Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association North/South All-Star Series participants in his first 23 seasons. “Our kids take a lot of pride in wearing the uniform. They really put New Albany first as to where their priorities lie.”

While some of his top players go with travel baseball organizations, McIntyre, the former IHSBCA president and an all-star series coach in 2000 and 2016, still coaches a summer high school team through a schedule of about 25 games in an urban school district that has 50 percent of its students on a free-or-reduced-lunch program.

“It’s becoming harder and harder to find high school teams to schedule games,” says McIntyre. “But there are some players who would never get a chance to play the next season without it. It’s an important part of our program. If we ever lose that, it’s going to hurt us.”

While the Bulldogs don’t have an indoor hitting facility, they do have Mt. Tabor Field.

Located on the Mt. Tabor Elementary School grounds about four miles from the high school campus, the field sports a Bermuda grass playing surface that was recently laser-graded. To save on maintenance, there is turf around home plate and baselines have been sodded.

Since the facility is land-locked by a road and a drainage ditch, high fences — 12 feet in right and left fields and 18 feet from gap to gap — were installed a few years ago.

“We’ve taken away some of the cheap home runs,” says McIntyre.

More improvements are on the way following the 2018 season, including new dugouts, bleachers, press box and concession stand.

The land adjacent to the field has been the home of New Albany Little League. That organization has moved and the school corporation-owned land will go to the construction of the junior varsity field.

“It’s going to look a whole lot different than it does now,” says McIntyre. “We’re really spoiled.”

While there are bound to be exceptions, McIntyre does not expect the scoreboard to get a workout.

“We pride ourselves in always having good defensive teams and pitchers who throw strikes,” says McIntyre. “If the other team doesn’t score any runs, you have a pretty good record.

“We don’t tend to have too many high-scoring games. We don’t beat too many people 10-9.”

McIntyre says the ability to run can play a major role in a high school baseball team’s strategy.

“You can change the game with your overall team speed,” says McIntyre. “But that comes and goes. Sometimes you have those guys and sometimes you don’t. It’s the luck of the draw.

“At the 4A level, you face such good pitching, you’re not going to score a lot of runs.”

That’s where it comes back to making the plays on defense and pitchers holding the other team in-check.

McIntyre talks to his players about being mentally strong and disciplined and controlling the controlable.

“You can’t control the umpire or the other team’s pitching,” says McIntyre. “You can control where you are on defense, where you throw the ball, how you running bases, getting signals correct and all those things.”

The HHC does not play a regular-season conference schedule. The conference champion is determined during a tournament in early May. Games are pre-drawn and played Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

HCC teams are spread out. New Albany is about 75 miles from Bedford North Lawrence and 55 from Columbus East and does not see the Stars or Olympians unless it’s in the tournament.

The weekends are when the Bulldogs may travel to or host teams in Evansville like Mater Dei, North or Reitz. Jasper and South Dearborn are regulars on the schedule as is Fort Wayne Carroll, which comes to New Albany early in the season.

Lowell (Mich.) stops in town for a split doubleheader involving Seymour on the Red Arrows’ way back from spring break in Pensacola, Fla.

The Bulldogs are scheduled to play games in northern Kentucky near Cincinnati.

IHSAA travel rules restrict teams from going more than 300 miles from the state line.

“We try to play a couple teams every year we’ve never played,” says McIntyre. “We can get into northern Alabama and the northern tip of Mississippi. Nashville (Tenn.) is as far as we’ve gone.”

New Albany, an IHSAA Class 4A school, is coming off a 17-10 season in 2017. The Bulldogs played six freshman and sophomores at various times.

First-team all-state first baseman Ryan Robison (who has not yet made a college commitment) and Chase Rudy (a Purdue commit) are already three-year varsity players expected back for their senior seasons in New Albany colors.

Josh Rogers pitched for Louisville and is now in the New York Yankees organization. The 6-foot-3 left-hander appeared in seven games at Double-A in 2017. In three pro seasons, he is a combined 22-11.

McIntyre is a 1986 graduate of Jeffersonville, where he played for IHSBCA Hall of Famer Don Poole.

“He was a super guy,” says McIntyre of Poole. “You don’t realize it at the time, but look back on it and realize how little he ever raised his voice. You just respected him. When he raised his voice, he meant business. He wanted it done and he wanted it done now.”

Even years after his retirement, Poole amazes McIntyre with his baseball mind.

“He remembers every pitch from every game,” says McIntyre. “He knows the game inside and out.”

McIntyre did not play at but did study at Indiana University Southeast. He spent one season as an assistant to IHSBCA Hall of Famer Wayne Stock at Clarksville and three as an Evansville North assistant before taking the reigns at New Albany.

McIntyre recalls Stock’s prowess as an offensive instructor.

“He was an old school baseball guy and he was awesome at teaching hitting,” says McIntyre. “He never bunted. He was a true ‘Earl Weaver’ kind of manager, playing for the three-run home run.”

He also remembers Stock as a generous man that often went into his own pocket to help where he saw a need.

“There wasn’t a thing he wouldn’t do for a kid,” says McIntyre.

Looking to coach his own personality, McIntyre wants his players enjoy the time spend with him.

“You just hope you leave a good impression with your players,” says McIntyre.

A math teacher at New Albany, McIntyre is married to biology teacher Shannon. The couple have two boys. Tyler (15) is a sophomore baseball player. Kevin (11) is a competitive swimmer.

Chris McIntyre is going into his 24th season as head baseball coach at New Albany High School in 2018. The 1986 Jeffersonville High School graduate is 13 wins shy of 500 for his career. (Tom Little Photo)